Tesla reportedly raises $226 million with IPO of 13.3M shares *Update

A lot of analysts were bullish on Tesla'sinitial stock offering, and a report from Bloomberg proves that the electric car start-up is a buy with the investors of the world. Tesla reportedly raised $226 million with its IPO, or 13.3 million shares at $17 per. The $226 mil total went above and beyond the high-end figure of $16 per share.

The news has to come as a pleasant surprise for Elon Musk, the company's CEO and largest shareholder. Musk has reportedly spent $70 million of his own personal fortune propping up Tesla while the company's losses mounted. The successful IPO is even more surprising given the fact that the company has yet to turn a quarterly profit and lost a substantial $230.5 million since 2003. Even at the expected median price of $15 per share, Bloomberg data shows that Tesla was valued at 5.5 times its net tangible assets, which doesn't exactly sound terrific. Tesla's IPO was likely helped out by recent investments by Toyota and Daimler, giving the first U.S. automaker IPO in over 50 years some much-needed street cred. Interestingly, Tesla is the first U.S. automaker since the Ford Motor Company to throw its hat into the public stock ring, with the Blue Oval doing so way back in 1956.

Tesla's IPO was considered a bit of a crap shoot given the recent failures of other stock offerings coupled with the fact that the EV maker doesn't have a lot of product to make it an attractive buy. Tesla has managed to sell about 1,000 copies of its pricey roadster, but now that the First-on-the-Block crew has theirs, the battery-packed two-seater isn't exactly flying off the shelves. The Model S sedan, which will reportedly go 160 miles on a single charge, won't arrive until 2012 at the earliest.

*UPDATE:Shares are now trading some 40% higher than they initially traded at. Read the full story here.

Reported comments and users are reviewed by Autoblog staff 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate Community Guideline. Accounts are penalized for Community Guidelines violations and serious or repeated violations can lead to account termination.

Anonymous

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

My thoughts exactly. I want them to succeed, but I haven't seen any evidence that they are anything more than a glorified kit car builder. And there are plenty of better glorified kit car builders out there.

Anonymous

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Tesla is certainly a high risk investment, but it appears that investors are still recognizing the potential of the electric vehicle, and see Tesla as their best bet, even though it's still quite a high risk investment.

A poor IPO showing would have virtually ruined the company, so this is definitely good news for the electric car.

@jrm,I'm with you. I'm not quite sold on the company's viability, but hey, my father already wants a Tesla S, so maybe there's something we don't know.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Most investors would tell you not to invest in IPOs in most cases. of course there are exceptions mot that people look at and say O you could have invested this much in microsoft and made..... hindsight is 20/20 and all but most of the time IPOs are not a good investments. but keep an eye on it and buy in after the value settles a bit.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Right now, everyone is gung ho to be "green" and are willing to throw money at just about anything in the excitement. I see a lot of parallels in these new "green" companies and the .com tech bubble. Many of the people who know the technology are often poorly resourced on the business side and fail because they can't make a workable business plan. That killed 90% of the .com companies.

Tesla has been hugely unprofitable and they need to change that quickly because now they are accountable to shareholders. That is the risk and burden with an IPO

Tesla at least is making a product (unlike the majority of others who are still vaporware) therefore they might have a chance. But the clock is ticking.

Anonymous

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

Wow, that's awfully kind of investors to donate $226 million. Although I wish the best for Tesla and electric cars in general, investing in a deflating bubble seems like a rather dubious business move.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

The biggest problem with Tesla is the fact that other much larger companies are all fighting towards an electric car, GM and Nissan especially. Even if they come out with a decent car it wont be at a price point to be a big seller. Im a little shocked they could raise that much money considering they have sold all of what? 1000 cars roadsters?

Anonymous

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

I just don't believe Tesla can offer the Model S sedan at around 50K when we see what it is costing Nissan and GM to bring out the Leaf and Volt respectively and these companies have economies of scale.

Anonymous

4 Years Ago

What? Did you read the article at all?

The $226 million is the money raised during the IPO through the sale of shares, not an estimate of the company's worth. The stock is currently trading above $18/share, which would give Tesla a market capitalization and implied net worth of roughly $1.7 billion, THREE times your lower estimate.